Q-CERT Launches National Data Security Accreditation Framework

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Doha-Qatar

Qatar’s National Center for Information Security, Q-CERT, today announced a new framework to enable government institutions to achieve compliance with the National Information Certification (NIA) standard for data security. Institutions providing government e-services will now be able to appoint an accredited auditor to ensure that the security and quality of software used in their e-services can be certified as compliant with the Security and Quality Assurance Standard (SSQA), while the NIA certification provides them with benchmarking that is acceptable to international standards.

Opening the launch event, Minister of Transport and Communications HE Jassim bin Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti said; “Our wise leadership recognized very early on the need for a cyber security institution to help protect our information in both the public and the private sectors. We understand the difficulties of [data security] compliance, and our mission is to offer the tools to ensure that our state and our government systems remain secure. We announce today a compliance system that is compatible with the best information security systems in the world.”

Presenting the initiative, Engineer Khalid Al Hashimi, Assistant Undersecretary for Cyber Security at the MOTC, added; “We expect millions of people from around the world to visit Qatar over the next few years and especially during the 2022 World Cup. These people will use our government applications and will expect the highest levels of data privacy. This pioneering framework will allow local entities certified under local law to be in automatic compliance with international best practices and standards without going through the onerous procedure of being accredited directly by them.”